[AW] all of those burdens [relic hunt]

[Jetsam]

WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO BE GENTLE
to reach out and not want to hurt

@Mathias
The word had reached them a week ago via the crowds bustling in and out of Delumine’s library that something strange was afoot … There were goings on that needed to be investigated, and while it is always tempting to stay cooped up with his thoughts, his journals and his lover, Sam would be the first to admit that he could never say no to the possibility of adventure. Besides, it would do them both good to be on the road again, he had thought before they left. He’d never seen his partner so docile before, and truth be told, it was a little unnerving.

For many years, Mattie had been known to many as a spitfire, a villain, a plain old shit disturber, yet now? There seems to be no trace of this. His rigid posture has stuck, as well as his generally sour disposition, but he is somehow less grandiose in the way he chooses to display his frustration, less … Perhaps just less. So Sam had packed whatever he could carry and decided they should follow the others and quest for some long forgotten relic. So far, they had managed to make it out of Delumine and into the wilds as far as … well, if Sam is honest with himself now, he’d been unable to read the map he’d squirreled away for quite sometime now, and it’s starting to get to him. The forest looks exactly the same as it did a mile ago, and he’s starting to wonder if they’re going in circles.

He pauses then, drawing in a deep breath, scenting the air and thanking the gods - just this once - for his preternatural abilities. A cool wind brings with it the scent of water, and where there is water there will be a break in the tree line, which means they will be able to determine where on the gods’ green earth they are. “I’m gonna check this out,” he tosses over his shoulder, ears tilted in his lover’s direction before swiveling eagerly toward what must be a current. (It has to be, god he hopes it is.)

art // background

[Mathias]

I THINK IT'S TIME THAT 
YOU CRAWL BACK HOME SON

The idea of a peaceful life has always been foreign to him, and yet… it seemed as if they had settled into something at least reminiscent of such a thing in Delumine. He spends his days tucked away in corners of the library, teaching himself how to read amongst the leather-bound volumes, or sprawled out in the patches of sunlight next to the desk Sam had claimed as his own; it is quiet, and exactly the opposite of what he had ever pictured for himself when he had thought about his future as a young man.

Truthfully, he had never thought he would survive this long, much less be able to sink into what felt like retirement.

The problem becomes, of course, the simple fact that he has never been particularly adept at idling around all day, of living without a purpose in his life. Even starving out in the desert, there had been some sense of motivation, a need to search out food and water to survive; here, his needs are met easily, and he finds himself unchallenged.

(Or, perhaps, facing down his greatest challenge; the very remaking of his being, the restructuring of every trauma that has crafted him into the person he is. He is trying, at least, even if learning to be gentle and to not immediately react with a snarl and a snap of teeth feels as though it goes against fiber of his body.

It feels vulnerable.

He’s not sure yet whether or not it will be bearable in the long term. For Sam, it might be.)

Either way, he had been quick to agree to an adventure, to agree to anything that would set them free from the library -- expansive though it may be, it still felt confining compared to the wide-open desert and the winding paths of the canyons.

“Sure you are,” He grumbles good-naturedly, and his eye gleams just a little too much before he nips at his lover’s heels, snorting out a soft laugh.

“Admit it, Sam, you’re lost.”

art

@Jetsam